The Dock Manual: Designing/Building/Maintaining - Softcover

Burns, Max

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1580170986 ISBN 13: 9781580170987

Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC, 1999

Synopsis

Add value and enjoyment to your waterfront property by building your own dock. From analyzing your shoreline and choosing an appropriate design to accessorizing with decorative trims, Max Burns covers every aspect of dock construction. Providing illustrated step-by-step instructions with complete materials and tools lists for 10 distinct docks, Burns also offers expert advice on different types of ramps and winterizing techniques. Encouraging you to get out on the water, this guide will inspire you create the dock of your dreams.

About this title

About the Author

Max Burns is the author of The Dock Manual and winner of seven Canadian National Magazine Awards for his writing. Burns lives in Ontario, Canada.

From the Back Cover

The essential ingredient for full enjoyment of your river, lake, pond, or oceanfront property.

If you're fortunate enough to own waterfront property, you know that a dock is essential for realizing maximum value and enjoyment of that land. Now you can build your own dock, or repair an existing dock, with this comprehensive, easy-to-use guide -- the only book devoted exclusively to residential docks.

The Dock Manual contains 10 complete plan for stationary and floating docks -- each with materials and tool lists, and simple, illustrated construction techniques. You'll also find step-by-step instructions for analyzing your shoreline and choosing the right dock for your needs.

You'll refer to The Dock Manual throughout the year for expert advice to help you:

* Make repairs and upgrades

* Winterize your dock

* Build angle, roller, and stair ramps

* Paint, stain, and treat your dock

* Deter and repair decay to wood and plastic

* Incorporate design options like trims and colors

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Basic residential dock building is not a difficult process--certainly much easier from my experience than constructing, say, a staircase. That's the good news. It's also the bad news. Such simplicity tends to encourage building without the necessary planning. Even the best looking waterfront structure fails if it suits neither the shoreline nor the dock user's needs. So even when equipped with complete plans for a dandy dock, it's still possible to build a berth of the blues, a beauty to behold but with enough congestion to get a mention on the local radio's traffic report.

...

How much room do we need? What was true for Robin Hood and Little John centuries ago is still true still today--people need a lane at least 3 feet wide to pass by each other without getting into a shoving match. In fact, experience has taught me that 3 feet is often not enough for young siblings.

Although evidence suggests that floating objects have been around since water was first invented, give or take a few millennia, it was Archimedes, the third-century B.C. Greek mathematician and part-time dock builder of enduring renown, who first made note of the natural law of flotation. Subsequently known as Archimedes' principle, this law applies to any object placed in water, be it a floating dock, a boat, or a rubber duck.

...

Severe wave action, which often occurs in shallow water facing a large exposure (an ideal situation for a pipe dock, by the way), can put some of the lighter, aluminum-tube-frame docks at risk. Any light-weight pipe dock is a risky choice for mooring large boats, or for mooring any boats in an area subject to severe wave action. It's a variation of the tail-wagging-the-dog theme, the boat wagging the dock in this case. Granted, such shenanigans don't seem to bother my dog, Martha, but they can make a mess of your pipe dock, bending legs (Martha's are designed to bend) and loosening joints because the legs resist bending.

...

Wood is the best choice for do-it-yourself crib construction, preferably hemlock, Douglas fir, or some comparably strong and decay-resistant species. And since you can't play crib without a full deck, a crib needs to be topped off with both a subframe and decking. Both are usually wood too, although there is no reason why plastic could not be used for the deck if your material preferences bend in that direction.

...

Wood exposed to climatic change (all wood not continuously immersed in water) constantly expands and contracts at the caprice of nature, and not in a uniform fashion. In fact, wood is at its worst behavior down at the waterfront--wet and fat one moment; drying and on a diet the next. Therefore, joining pieces of wood in dock building requires different techniques than the accepted practices of house and general carpentry (see chapter 9). This adds a bit to the cost of construction, but without it any dock will suffer premature failure.

...

No tool--hand-powered or electric--should be uncomfortable or awkward to use. Unfortunately, cheap tools often are. While some door-crasher specials are fiscally attractive, reach for the tool before reaching for your wallet. Pick it up and feel how it fits in your hand. Is it balanced to minimize the strain of its weight on your wrist and arm? Does the handle feel "right" when held in working position? Quality tools last longer and conform to the quirks of human anatomy. Cheap tools break in use, seriously testing your self-control.

...

Miscellaneous optional tools: Backhoe. I called mine Waldo. It could lift whole docks into the air, dig big holes in the ground for building concrete piers, and do all sorts of backbreaking stuff at the flick of a lever--especially stuff I never thought needed doing until I bought it. But be forewarned: People will continually stop by to ask if you want to earn a few bucks doing a "simple" job for them (it's never worth it) or ask if you want to sell Waldo. To the first question, I always said no; to the second I quoted a ridiculously high price, until some cad said "Sure", and Waldo was sold. Now, whenever I spot a backhoe sitting in someone's yard, I stop by and ask if they want to sell it. Invariably the owner wants too much.

...

The common practice is to hinge floating dock sections together. Big mistake. This allows free up-and-down movement at the ends of each section, setting the stage for the infamous roller-coaster effect as each section attempts to rotate about its own roll axis when you travel from one end of the dock to the other. What you get is an aquatic teeter-totter, which is great if that is what you were after. If not, the hardware of choice is a dock connector.

...

Don't make mistakes, make adjustments. Allow yourself a few moments (or days, if necessary) to ponder the ramifications of an error. Almost any error can be converted into a running design change, or at worst reclassified as art.

...

Forms hold the concrete in place until it sets. If the forms fail, the concrete spills out, sets, and leaves a mess rivalling a teenager's bedroom, only with no hope of ever cleaning it up.

...

A prime motivator for putting anything together yourself is cost--rumor has it can save you money (don't keep the receipts). Yet if cost is your only reason to break out the hammers, there's no shortage of low grade contractors all across North America who will gladly slap together a shoreline embarrassment for possibly even less than you and your brother- in-law Ned could, and almost certainly much quicker.

...

Shifting or heaving ice can topple cribs and smash floating docks against the shore, or trap and crush them between packs of moving ice. And if a wind begins to blow when the ice is floating free--and not attached to the dock--the ice can pound against the dock with the power of a jackhammer. All this unruly behavior can cause some serious damage in a few short hours.

...

No matter what precautions you take or materials you use, some sites demand that any dock you put in be removed for the winter; otherwise the ice will do it for you in the spring. This realization will likely come as a great disappointment to those who had high hopes for a low-maintenance solution to their docking problems, but life's a bit tough on us all at times.

...

On both dock and boat, mooring lines are tied to bitts, bollards, cleats, or rings. Bitts are like pants--they come in pairs except everybody knows there's only one of them. Officially, bitts consist of two vertical wooden posts and, sometimes, a horizontal bar runs between them. When bitts are made of metal (usually with a Madonna-like waistline tucked in just below the top to hold the rope in place), they are then known as bollards, although the terms and shapes are argued by experts from all factions of the boating world. So call them either name and you're sure to initiate a lively debate among keen sailors.

...

Those with small boats (a utility boat or runabout less than 14 feet) need not spend big bucks in order to have a marine railway that works. As with all do-it-yourself projects, time, toil, and ingenuity are the currency exchanged here.

Edition details

• Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1580170986
• ISBN 13: 9781580170987
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208